One conventional approach used to implement an oscillator without a crystal is to use a simple resistor/capacitor (RC) network to implement a timer. The original 555 timer chip design used an RC network. However, RC networks are susceptible to process variations and temperature variations. A typical mainline CMOS process does not control resistors or capacitors to tolerances of better than 5%. In some processes, the tolerance is even lower. Laser trimming and other techniques can be used to achieve higher tolerances, but may add to the overall cost of the device.
A second conventional approach used to implement temperature insensitive current sources is described by R. A. Blauschild in his paper entitled AN INTEGRATED TIME REFERENCE, which is hereby incorporated by reference. Such an approach develops a temperature invariant current by using a bias generator that sums currents with different temperature coefficients and combines them with a threshold cancellation circuit. The technique allowed a current that was proportional to oxide thickness. This method was applied to time interval measurement and to filtering, but not to oscillator design.
A third conventional approach used to implement an oscillator is to use a ring oscillator that is stable across process and temperature variations. This is often used in timing recovery PLL circuits. The ring oscillator approach appears to be able to achieve frequency stability on the order of 5%, which is not good enough for a target of 2% or less.
Referring to FIG. 1, a portion of a ring oscillator 10 is shown. The ring oscillator 10 comprises a number of devices 12a-12n. FIG. 2 generally illustrates the temperature dependence of the frequency of oscillation of the devices of the ring oscillator 10. The temperature dependence of the ring oscillator 10 adversely affects the frequency of oscillation.
Referring to FIG. 3, a circuit 20 is shown illustrating a biasing circuit for a delay cell that may be used with a conventional ring oscillator. A delay cell 22 generally presents a signal VDD, a signal PBIAS, a signal BIASA, a signal BIASB and a signal VSS to a biasing circuit 24. The biasing circuit 24 may include a current source 26 that responds to the signal PBIAS. The biasing circuit 24 may provide biasing to a voltage reference circuit 28 that is used as a VCO input. Additionally, a bandgap current bias circuit 30 provides additional biasing to the voltage reference 28. However, while the circuit 20 may be roughly temperature independent, it does not generally provide a high precision frequency of oscillation (i.e., less than 2%).